It’s federal election day in Canada, and for all my negativity about politicians, politics, economics—and especially how that all can mix itself up into hockey (ick)—I’m certainly not cynical about our right to vote.

So in a non-partisan attempt to encourage today’s voting, I reached out to the leaders of the five major federal parties: the Bloc Quebecois, the Conservatives, the Green Party, the NDP and the Liberals, and asked them (1) who their favourite childhood NHL teams were, and (2) their favorite hockey memories.

The Bloc, Greens and Conservatives chose not to respond, but the leaders of the NDP and the Liberal Party were kind enough to do so, which is why only their answers are available here:

... well, really freakin horrible, but I can pick up the broadstrokes of these two stories today (Corus Sports and RDS) and the news is essentially this: Gainey hasn’t completely given up, but he’s not optimistic that Sundin will play for the Habs this season.

Forgive my parched translation (actually, it’s less of a “translation” and more of a “paraphrase”) but here are his comments:

“It is difficult to be optimistic because we haven’t had much contact with him. We haven’t gotten the message he’s very interested in becoming a Canadian. We have a place for him on paper and we’ve made him a good offer.”

Gainey also remarks that he expects a decision from Sundin by the end of the month, but I’m not clear on whether that’s because the Habs need to move on to plan ‘B’ at that point, or because Gainey has been told that Sundin actually intends to decide by Monday.